U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,744 to Jagger et al, describes a self re-sheathing safety case for a needle but this requires a special construction of syringe and even with its relative complexity is not entirely fool-proof.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,281 describes a needle disposal system in which needles are safely removed and dropped into a container but the point of the needle is still exposed in the container and as indicated can and often does penetrate the walls of the container and cause problems to disposal personnel.
This invention relates to improvements in the removal of sharp pointed sections of medical instruments and their safe disposal or the disposal of sharp pointed medical instruments or sharps as they are known.
Sharps may include needles for hypodermic syringes, canulas, scalpels, catheters or any other sharp pointed instruments used in medical treatment and which are generally of the disposable kind but which, because they have been used for treating ill people may be carrying disease organisms or other infectious bodies.
To meet stringent health and safety regulations and to minimize transmission of bacteria, viruses, disease or other organisms or other organisms having the potential to create disease or illness it is now a practice to dispose of the sharp or needle section of a medical device or the complete medical tool with the sharp or needle section attached once the medical tool has been used after coming into contact only once with a human body. In most cases, such as blood sample collection, it is necessary to remove the needle or other device from the medical tool and it is during this process that many occurrences of injury occur. Such injuries are referred to as needle stick injuries and it is to the prevention of needle stick injuries that this present invention is directed.
A further problem is that the procedure for the disposal of the sharps or needles at present whether or not they have been removed from a syringe is to drop them into a storage container which may then be destroyed by burning or the like. It is found, however, that needles may tend to puncture and project out of the sides of a container into which they have been placed and cause problems for disposal personnel as well. Hence, this invention is directed to preventing needles from being able to create further injury once they have been dropped into a disposal container.
It is one object of this invention therefore, to alleviate the necessity to handle a needle or the boss of a needle during the disposal process and to prevent that needle from being able to cause any further injury once removed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,744 to Jagger et al. describes a self re-sheathing safety case for a needle but this requires a special construction of syringe and even with its relative complexity is not entirely fool-proof.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,281 describes a needle disposal system in which needles are safely removed and dropped into a container but the point of the needle is still exposed in the container and as indicated can and often does penetrate the walls of the container and cause problems to disposal personnel.